


Day 9: Promise

by GemmaRose



Series: Ten Days of Lawlu 2016 [9]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Death, Comfort, Grief/Mourning, M/M, don't worry all the Straw Hats are fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 10:19:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7098709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some battles simply aren’t meant to take place. Some promises were never meant to be kept.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 9: Promise

Law knocked on the back of the Sunny’s figurehead to let the teen curled up on the lion’s head know he was there. He’d read about the incident in the paper, and the Straw Hats had called the very next day to arrange a meeting. Now he could see why. “Luffy-ya?” he asked, keeping his voice low enough that it wouldn’t carry far over the sound of gentle waves on the hull.

“Go ‘way.” the younger captain muttered. It sounded like he’d been crying, like maybe he was still crying, and Law’s heart wrenched painfully in his chest. It was unnatural, seeing Luffy like this. Shoulders hunched in, knees clutched to his chest, trademark hat nowhere in sight. Even in the wake of Marineford Luffy had been loud and expressive in his grief, lashing out at everything in his vicinity. Penguin had complained about the X-ray machine in the engine room for weeks.

“No.”

Luffy turned around, shiny tear streaks carved into his cheeks under puffy red eyes. “Go away.” he repeated, his voice heavy with the threat of conqueror’s haki. Law reflexively squared his shoulders, then forced himself to relax. This was Luffy, the man who, despite his best efforts, he’d fallen in love with. Luffy would never willingly hurt him.

Law stepped between two spikes of the Sunny’s mane and crouched in front of his boyfriend, reaching out to rest a hand on the younger captain’s shoulder. “Luffy-ya, I know what happened.” he knelt on the figurehead, and gripped both of Luffy’s shoulders gently. Fresh tears rolled down the teen’s cheeks, and Law suddenly had an armful of clingy rubberman.

The impact nearly knocked him sideways, but he managed to recover before they both fell off the ship and drowned. A bit of scooting got his back pressed against Sunny’s mane, and Law made quiet shushing noises as Luffy cried. It took a long time before Luffy stopped sniffling against Law’s shirt, and when he did the quiet sound of waves against the hull was almost deafening.

“It’s not my hat.” Luffy said thickly, his face still pressed against Law’s chest. Law didn’t stop stroking his boyfriend’s back, holding him slightly tighter for a moment.

“Shanks didn’t give it to me to keep.” Luffy sniffled. “I was supposed to give it back when we were equals. And now I can’t, be- because-” his breath hitched in an ugly sob, and Law made shushing sounds as he pulled his boyfriend in close.

“It’s okay.” he murmured, lifting a hand to card through Luffy’s hair.

“How is it okay?!” Luffy yelled, pushing away from Law. “Shanks is _dead_!”

“But you’re not.” Law said firmly, grabbing Luffy by the shoulders again. “You’re still alive, Luffy-ya.”

Luffy sniffled, his furious expression crumpling into more tears. “I- I was gonna fight him.” Luffy sobbed. Law gathered his boyfriend close, tucking Luffy’s head under his chin and curling around the rubberman as much as he was able. “I promised him I’d become a great pirate, and then give his hat back, and now-”

“Now you can still become a great pirate.” Law said firmly, holding Luffy tight against his chest. “You can still become Pirate King. You _will_ be Pirate King.”

“Torao really thinks so?” Luffy sniffled. Law thought he heard a giggle in there, though a wet one.

“I know so.” Law said softly, grinning as Luffy’s head tilted to look up at him. “You’ve already defeated two Emperors and- how many Shichibukai?”

“Do you count?”

Law chuckled and bent to press a kiss to Luffy’s forehead. “Absolutely.”

“Then, mmm, five?” Luffy pursed his lips in an adorable thinking face. “No, six.”

“Who’s the sixth?” Law asked, counting them off in his head. Crocodile, Moriah, Doflamingo, Weevil, and himself made five. Even if there had been another defeat which didn’t make the papers, there was no way Usopp wouldn’t have mentioned it at some point.

“Boa Hancock.” Luffy grinned, his eyes still wet but his breathing now even. “If you count, she does too.”

Ah, right, the Pirate Empress had a crush on Luffy. Law almost hoped they ran into her again, just so he could show the most beautiful woman in the world that the object of her affections now belonged to someone else. Fighting her would probably be pretty fun, even, if Luffy didn’t try to stop them.

“I can’t give Shanks his hat back.” Luffy said quietly, pressing his cheek against Law’s chest. “That was the second real promise I ever made, and I can’t keep it.”

“Maybe not.” Law conceded, threading his fingers through Luffy’s hair and tugging gently until his boyfriend’s head tilted back. “But you can still become his equal. You can become a great pirate.” and idea popped into his head, and Law smiled down at his boyfriend. “You could even still prove you’re his equal.”

“How?” Luffy asked, and the raw hope in his voice almost hurt.

“Defeat the bastards who killed him.” Law grinned, letting it edge on vicious. “Show everyone what happens when they mess with the friends of the future Pirate King.”

A matching smile slowly spread across Luffy’s face, just the right side of vicious to send shivers down Law’s spine. “Torao’s the best.” he murmured, wiggling more upright and pressing a kiss to Law’s lips. Law relaxed a little, and shifted his hold on Luffy to one more conducive to kissing. Some of his crew might whine a bit about going after people strong enough to take down an Emperor, but at least a few would remember that _they_ were people strong enough to take down an Emperor. Or, well, strong enough to take down the high level underlings of an Emperor, but that was all they’d be getting to fight anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this could’ve fit in Day 6 (Loss//Change) but tbh I didn’t think of it until I’d already written and posted Change so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> The two Emperors Luffy’s beaten are Kaidou and Big Mom (lbr, he’s been destined to fight her since Fishman Island, the current arc is just expediting the process) and I put Weevil on the list of defeated Shichibukai because, well, Oda did sorta tease a while back about seeing Whitebeard’s crew on Wano and Weevil is hunting them down so... yeah, Luffy’s gonna kick his ass. And there’s no way Ace isn’t getting dragged into that clusterfuck, so it’s gonna be _personal_.


End file.
